


The Loathly Lady

by water_bby



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 16:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17026131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_bby/pseuds/water_bby
Summary: A decade after her stepmother cursed her, the Lady Ragnelle plans to get her body and her lands back. First, she has to marry Sir Gawain.





	The Loathly Lady

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/gifts).



They say that when the Lady Ragnelle was young, her mother died, and her father, as was usual in those days, remarried. Not even two years later, her brother was born at the height of Midsummer and named Gromer-Somer Joure. As was becoming increasingly common, her brother displaced her as the heir to the lands that had belonged to her mother's ancestors. At first, she enjoyed spending time with her stepmother and learning more about the magical arts that she had begun to learn from her mother, but by the time she was sixteen and her brother was eight, Lady Ragnelle and her stepmother had ceased to do more than be cordial in front of her father. When he died at the end of that year, the conflict increased. Finally, when Lady Ragnelle suggested to her stepmother and her brother that they might want to be a bit less imperious with the servants and the tenants, her stepmother turned to the boy, announced, “Your sister is a hideous person to say you need to make any change in what you do,” and flung a curse at the younger woman.

They also say the Lady Ragnelle never really remember much of the next few minutes, the details buried under the pain of transformation, but when she came back to her senses, her body didn't fit right anymore and she now had teeth like tusks which made speaking difficult even if they didn't change her voice. She had always enjoyed spending time in the kitchens, but now she was more likely to be there than in the comfortable solar higher in the castle. She stopped trying to force her stepmother and brother to change, but her people still brought to her the matters that they could have her handle, even if they had to take larger matters to the courts her stepmother held in her brother's name. And she learned still more magic, including how to reverse, at least temporarily, the curse that had been laid upon her. The first time she tried, she passed out, but through trial and error, and with the help of the minor magical practitioners in and near the court that should have been hers, she learned that she needed to eat a lot in order to power the change for much time at all.

Now, some ten years later, following her stepmother's death, her brother managed to offend King Arthur, and word came that King Arthur had granted the rights to those lands to his nephew, Sir Gawain. Sir Gromer-Somer Joure had raged day and night, and then had disappeared for some two days. When he returned, he was too happy, thought the Lady Ragnelle, and he was boasting about how he had bested the King and would complete his revenge in another year. It took her nearly six months to get her brother to tell her the specifics of his deal with the king, about the riddle he has asked and the answer he required, but once she knew she left him to continue to enjoy the idea of killing the King while Lady Ragnelle worked to use this to both break the curse her stepmother had placed upon her in a fit of pique and to regain her maternal lands. She had already lost what should have been hers, so she could afford the risk. She began by sending some of the young people of the land to the castle in Carlyle so that she would have at least a few familiar faces there if her plan worked. Then she found the path by which the King would come to his meeting with Sir Gromer-Somer Joure. 

Lady Ragnelle waited in the woods for days, certain that King Arthur would be by sooner or later. When he did arrive, she waited for him in the middle of the track, knowing that he would not be able to simply ignore her. She stayed stone-faced through the expected revulsion, but then pressed her advantage. For all he was king, he was also a man in fear for his life. And so she offered him the one thing that he wanted--the answer that would give him victory. She watched him ride back to Carlyle, confident that he would return, but not so confident that Sir Gawain would agree to the bargain. While she hoped, she was also pleased that the king was not willing to order his nephew. If her curse was to be broken, it was better to start from a freely accepted handfasting.

When King Arthur returned, he gravely acknowledged her presence and told her that Sir Gawain had accepted his place in her end of the bargain. She passed on the answer that she knew her brother would accept, however grudgingly. Sir Gromer-Somer Joure might not be the most ethically observant of the knights in the kingdom, but even he knew better than to violate the oath he had pledged. She stayed just closed enough to the clearing to hear her brother's roar of disappointment, and then silently rode back to where she had last seen the king. She pulled her nicest traveling cloak from her bag, wrapped it around her shoulders, and prepared for the next stage in her plan.

For all she was risking, the Lady Ragnelle, they say, actually enjoyed the weeks that followed the handfasting. She had been pleased that Sir Gawain supported her demand that the handfasting happen immediately; he was clearly living up to his end of the bargain she had made with the King. She was also pleased that Gawain had agreed to set the day of the wedding as soon as legally possible. She knew she'd have to meet Morgause, Queen of Orkney, eventually, but she wanted to do as once she was a member of the family. She'd learned that from her stepmother.

She was also pleased that night when, after she'd been escorted to the suite that would be hers for now, a tentative knock at her door turned into Rosemary, one of the people she'd sent to Carlyle, bearing a large platter of meats and cheeses. They had sat by the fire for hours, catching up on the news from home and the gossip of the court.

The Lady Ragnelle was not so pleased when the Queen and her ladies tried to get cajole her into delaying the wedding. She'd been waiting for years for the chance to break the curse, and she had no desire to wait any longer than she had to now that the end was nearing. So she had refused, mostly by pretending she had not realized what they were suggesting, and then cajoled them into providing her wedding dress as well as additional clothes. It made them feel better, it seemed, and if they were talking about fabrics and patterns, then she did not have to listen to them talk about what a shame it was that Sir Gawain was marrying such a loathly lady.

The wedding was as beautiful as she could have wished, and Sir Gawain did not even hesitate when he said his vows. She allowed him to seat her at the head table and talked about the decorations and how nice it was that the day was clear and bright until the servants brought out the first of the platters of food. Then Lady Ragnelle ate, and ate, and ate, ignoring the way most of the court did their best to not look at her, and then called for another platter of meats. Once the food was finally finished and the entertainers had taken their final bow, the Queen rose, beckoned the Lady Ragnelle, and then they were leaving the great hall for her bedchamber, where the members of the court chosen to witness this helped both of them out of their wedding finery and into their shifts, and then helped them into the bed. She was glad to have Rosemary there, making sure there was watered wine warming by the fire and mouthing “good luck” before slipping out to the antechamber where she would spend the night with Sir Gawain's manservant in case the newly married couple needed assistance in the night. 

When the noise of the departing court had died away, the Lady Ragnelle drew upon her magic and worked the spell that temporarily reversed the curse. She shook her pale curls out of their rough braid, straightened her shift as well as she could for a garment sized for a larger body, and then reach out to poke her new husband on the shoulder. He grunted, but buried his head further into a pillow, moving his body slightly further away from her before returning to the position he had previously been in. She grinned, and then poked him again, saying, “Really, my lord, can you not even bear to look at me?” Then, they say, he turned, apologies already on his lips, and before falling silent. The Lady Ragnelle then said, “My stepmother cursed me to wear that other form, both day and night, until a good knight married me. Now, we can adjust this curse. I could be as you see me now by day or night, and the other form by night or day. Which would you prefer?” Lady Ragnelle waited until her husband sat up, reached for her hands, raised them to his lips, and then answered her, “I leave that decision to you, my lady.”

At these words, they say, the Lady Ragnelle felt the curse fade away. Laughing, she leaned forward to press a kiss to her husband's lips, saying, “In that case, I choose to be as I now am by day and by night.” And so she was, and the Lady Ragnelle and Sir Gawain had the happiest marriage in the court.


End file.
